MAME ROW #116 - Rapid Hero

[obsidianspider]

This is the MAME Random Of the Week #116

The three random numbers for this week are: 901 1494 1895

Click here to vote! Which game do you choose for MAME ROW #116?

The result of the poll is posted on Wednesday, so we have Monday and Tuesday for experimentation.

901
Game Name: Kram (set 1)
Company: Taito America Corporation
Year: 1982
ROM file name: kram.zip

1494
Game Name: Rapid Hero (Japan?)
Company: Media Trading Corp
Year: 1994
ROM file name: raphero.zip

1895
Game Name: Tao Taido (set 1)
Company: Video System Co.
Year: 1993
ROM file name: taotaido.zip

What is the MAME ROW?

MAME ROW stands for MAME Random Of the Week. We randomly select an arcade game from the 0.78 MAME Reference Set to play on the week. The idea is to play games we've never played before, interact with other forum members, post hi-scores, share game strategies, fun facts, and (the most important) HAVE FUN!

Notes:

1. We usually post hi-scores screenshots after playing with only one credit. If you used more than one credit, please mention it on your post.

2. There's no need to use RetroPie to join the MAME ROW! You can play it on any platform you want.

3. Feel free to post your hi-score (or any content about the game) anytime you want on the previous rounds topics (link below).

Every Monday we create a topic at the "General Discussion and Gaming > MAME Random Of the Week" forum section with the 3 random games to be voted. And on Wednesday we check the result.

These "rules" are constantly being improved!

Previous Rounds

[VictimRLSH]

Tao Taido. This has to be one of the lamest fighters I've ever played. Not only that, but there appears to be no score or any other indicator of how far you progressed. I suppose you would have to beat the game for that, and I don't feel like playing this one any more. :)

I'm liking Rapid Hero a lot. It seems like one of those 'fair play' shumps instead of 'bullet hell'. My ROM doesn't have sound, I'm using lr-MAME2003, does this have sound on other emulators?

[GtBFilms]

Didn't have a lot of time to try these out this week, as I've been spending my spare time working on my new desktop cabinet.

However I gave them a quick blast last night (as part of my cabinet testing!) and had the following thoughts:

Kram
This one seems typical of the early 80's games, not particularly smooth and the sound when it initially draws the screen (blam, blam, blam) is synonymous with these early games, both in the arcade and on the home micros. It seems straightforward enough, pick up the coins, while avoiding the nasty skulls. Drop walls to obstruct the skulls, knock down walls to clear a path for yourself.
I didn't play it long enough to work out any particular strategy, and it seems a bit random how many walls are knocked down each time. I think this would probably become more fun with additional play, as I work out some tactics. Not bad for it's age, but not spectacular.

Rapid Hero
I liked this one, it's another bullet hell shooter, but the bullets aren't too bad (early on anyway). It looks pretty good and was satisfying to play. I did have issues with sound under lr-mame2003, and switched to lr-fba and it worked fine. However this is when I discovered that the keymappings for FBA on my cabinet were all wrong, and was foolish enough to start messing about in retroarch settings. As usual, by the time I finished, the control setup was worse than when I started, with right on the joystick no longer working. One day I will learn not to mess about in retroarch settings.

Tao Taido
This one really looks good on my new cabinet, so I had high hopes! Unfortunately as I'd messed up the controls, I couldn't move right. Which did somewhat spoil the game for me, I was always in retreat! It didn't seem anything special to be honest, and there's the usual problem with fighters of how to compare performance in a competition, as there's no scores, only number of bouts. It does look quite nice though.

So while none of the choices are actually bad this week, none of them are stand-out winners either, but on reflection, based on fun, this week my vote goes to...

Rapid Hero

[VictimRLSH]

@GtBFilms That bartop cabinet is a riot!!!

[obsidianspider]

This week's winner is Rapid Hero

[VictimRLSH]

Another nice thing about this game is it isn't too stingy with bombs, it seems to give you enough that you don't need to be shy with them.

[GtBFilms]

I like this one - gets the adrenaline going with its frantic action. I haven't managed to beat @VictimRLSH score yet, but I'm improving with each attempt!

214930 so far.

[VictimRLSH]

@GtBFilms Don't forget to 'train' before your single credit run. Anywhere you have a snag, save state right before that, and keep hammering away at it until you have it down pat, even if you succeed, keep doing that until you can pass it 100%. Bomb when you need to, you get plenty of bombs here.

[VictimRLSH]

This is as high as I'm going to be able to get on one credit, there is this GINORMOUS rocket you fight at the end of the 3rd round, and it takes all your resources in lives and bombs to clear the stupid thing, THEN the boss that has escaped from the previous two rounds puts on a &%$*ing HUGE armor suit and finishes off whatever you have left.

Here are some tips:

The AI falls into a trap many shooters do in that most of the bullets fired from the regular enemies are aimed directly at you instead of a pattern. When you dodge, only move incrementally and dodge only as far as necessary, then move BACK ahead of those bullets. That way when more are fired they are moving toward the same area of the screen, giving you more room to dodge.

When the armored boss returns at the end of the second round, he will split into 3 parts, spin his staff, and fire a spread from each. Use a bomb just before the bullets reach you, and not only will it protect you from the fire, but the bomb effect will last just long enough to kill the army he summons just after that, leaving him vulnerable again.

Another thing about the bombs. The moment you start a bomb, you become invulnerable even though you are nowhere near the bomb effect. While the bomb builds up, you can move right through enemies (even bosses) to grab powerups or reposition.

[obsidianspider]

Sorry I'm late. MAME ROW #117 is live.